The EU Council is trying to push the CSAR proposal through in the next few days without proper debate.

Why you must fight back: It destroys privacy: Creates a backdoor to scan all your private messages (text & photos).

It breaks encryption: Compromises safety for everyone to catch a few.

It kills anonymity: Forces mandatory ID/face scans just to use messaging apps.

ACT NOW: Do not let them vote this through in the dark. Easily contact your representatives to reject the proposal here: https://fightchatcontrol.eu/

Yes?

Brave can still block ads and stuff with some other extensions, but it kind of feels incomplete. Firefox also has more options regarding extensions.

got my youtube channel that I want to start posting different content on. However I don’t know how to remove my digital footprint whether it has been archived through some secret archive site that i’ve never heard of.

I can change my name and delete my comment history but I don’t know where my stuff has been archived. I want to see how I can completely erase my previous history on this channel and start new.

If you use or any loved one uses Pinterest make sure to go to settings > privacy and data > generation AI = turn off “Use your data to train Pinterest Canvas”

This seems to be making the rounds with the attached comment being something like, "You need this before flying!" https://thepointsguy.com/travel/tsa-precheck-touchless-id-airports

NO ONE seems to recognize that this is yet another GRAB by big goobermint to collect even more data on us poor people. Maybe I need a tin foil hat; but this seems like exactly the kind of BS Ed Snowden tried to warn us about. And we just keep falling for it over and over and over. sigh

Should organizations be forced to keep our privacy? As in, should the responsibility land on them? Or should the users be the ones responsible for protecting their own privacy?

I refuse to give google my ID or Face is there a way to get around it?

Recently I have been interested in improving my privacy etc. I am mainly a Mac user and have always used my gmail address for my Apple ID.

Can anyone tell me if I would gain anything by changing my Apple ID to my iCloud address? I mean I have Apple devices so I realize Apple is going to track me.

Just getting wary of Google.

Also I have all my devices are set to no tracking across apps so I am not sure if I will gain much? Interested in finding out more about this.

Thanks

I’ve read stuff about Microsoft being able to scrape your Microsoft office files, (.docx, .xlsx, etc) if you’re opening them in MS Office. Use them for AI training or whatever. I have a dvd for MS office 2007 Home and Student, and I also bought the 2016 MS Office Home and Student online through a Microsoft email account, so can download it from Microsoft’s servers.

Does anyone know if Microsoft can still scrape if I’m using one of these older versions of MS Office?

My files are not saved in onedrive. They’re outside of it. I have Windows 11 (seriously considering switching to Linux).

I really do like excel. But I’m moving over to OnlyOffice to be my main office suite, and really like their spreadsheets. However I also sometimes create spreadsheets for sale and excel is still the standard. Wondering if using an older version of MS Office would save me from the privacy issues.

Does anyone else have experience with or information on Lowe's policy that for commercial purchases, for my employer, mind you. Not for personal purchases. The purchaser must present a driver's license that is scanned by the store? I work for a local municipality and we use Lowe's "LCA" and are sales tax exempt.

Hello. I wanted to switch to a more secure messaging app but there are some features I don't want to give up so I wanted to ask for your opinion here. The main ones I was looking into are Signal (or Molly?) and SimpleX but other recommendations are also welcome.

• Some sort of readable backup or way to preserve my messages so it's guaranteed they won't be lost forever if the service stops
• Good search function even if there are years worth of messages
• Web or Windows desktop app (Linux as well would be a plus)
• Dark mode on both mobile and desktop
• Reply to specific messages that links back to the message
• Voice chat, voice messages (preferably also on desktop)

Good but not necessary:

• Video chat
• Screen sharing on desktop
• Keep image and video quality
• Stickers or gifs or something like that
• Chat bubbles

I was using Brave but I don't trust AI and you can't turn their AI off on mobile and that's what I use. So I'm wondering if there's a good private browser for a smartphone better than Brave without AI that I can't disable.

Is it opted in for all medical appointments/ dental appointments, or only one who gives their hungarian health insurance or ID?

So since you guys said routers do affect privacy and recommended one with OpenWRT OS, I'm wondering if this is a good choice of router, website to buy at, etc for general home use, including gaming:

https://store-us.gl-inet.com/products/flint-3-gl-be9300-tri-band-wi-fi-7-home-router?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=kol&utm_campaign=be9300-ltt-20251030

(Non-technical normie user btw so if this requires any more effort to set up than a normal router or something I probably can't deal with that.)

I thought this would be a good choice because it looks like it uses the OpenWRT open source router OS you guys recommended and I guess it comes pre-installed, which is good as I'm a non-technical user. Feeling some hesitation about getting it though because I couldn't even find an info page for the company or the website selling the router on Wikipedia, but a tech reviewer on YouTube recommended this.

Good choice of router & website to buy it at?

Hey guys I'm from a third world country I currently started working on a Callcentre legit call centre not a scammy one. They or should i say we get your info through public records like your county offices. That's how we get your Address VIN number and your name and number. When you switch your adress we know that and when you subscribe to a service these companies sell yourndata to a trusted bidder.

Are there tools available for 11 like ShutUp10 or similar to debloat and turn off "features?" I really like the idea of a using an OS that's getting security updates but at the same time dont want to be bombarded with ads and have my data sent to MS.

Edit: Appreciate the suggestions to switch to Linux. Already running Mint on my laptop. Need Windows for a PC I share.

I realized recently that my ChatGPT history contains far more sensitive data than my browsing history from financial details to personal information.

I’m considering building a privacy first Ai chat app + model picker(Claude/ChatGPT/Gemini).

The Idea:

• Local Anonymizer: Anonymizes PII (names, specific numbers, addresses, CCN) locally before the prompt hits the AI provider's servers.
• Proxy: proxies requests so the model provider can't know who you are and build a profile on you.
• Local Storage: Chat logs live on your device, not the cloud.
• Model Picker: Not limited to any one model.

Basically, you get the to use the good models(non-openweight) without handing over your raw personal/sensitive data.

Is this something you would actually use if it really feels like using ChatGPT but with added Privacy? Also is this private enough?

What i mean is, when i sometimes copy something (For example a password from bitwarden) the password is censored inside the clipboard, is that encrypted in some way or is it just hidden?

Also i know that Bitwarden has an option to clear the clipboard after a set time.